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Sunday, July 23, 2017

Why should you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited?

Last month, I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited after pondering over the ‘should I’ or ‘shouldn’t I’ question for a long while.

These were the arguments I heard against joining Kindle Unlimited.

The quality of KU books are not good

Really? I disagree. There are over a million books, that too by bestselling authors from around the world available on Kindle Unlimited. The Indian publishers are not enrolling their books on KU mostly because of the fear that it will kill the paperback sales. But slowly they are realizing the earning power of KU. You can find books by Preeti Shenoy, Amish, Ashwin Sanghi etc who are among the most popular Indian authors on Kindle Unlimited.

There is a limit to the books you can borrow at a time

Yes! There is a limit. You can borrow only 10 books at a time. 10 books! Isn’t that enough?

The good thing is you can return any book at any time and borrow another.

Kindle Unlimited is not really free

Yes, it is not really free. You have to pay to subscribe. But compared to the rates of the books you can actually read with the KU subscription, the books become almost free.

Limited Choice

If you read only Booker/Pulitzer prize winning books, you won't find many of them on Kindle Unlimited. But if you are a fan of romance, fantasy, self-help, writing guides, recipe books and read Indie writers, you will find so many good books. Yes, Harry potter and Hunger games series are also available.

Arguments supporting Kindle Unlimited:

1)There is no limit to the number of books you can read.

2)There are no additional or hidden charges other than the subscription.

8)Bookmarks and notes are saved to your Amazon account even if you return a book.

As an experiment, I initially subscribed for just one month.

The money I spent: Rs. 200.

The number of books I read: 24, each book priced somewhere between Rs.99-400.

You can do the Math. Even without any, you can tell it is a seriously good bargain.

A majority of these books are fiction, which I may not want to read more than once. Once I read, I can return the book, freeing up space for new books.

Some are reference books which I will retain on my Kindle. There is no limit to the amount of time I can keep a book. No need to renew.

The 'read for free' tab on every Kindle Unlimited book brings a smile on my face.

What many readers don’t understand is that even though you get to read the book for free, Amazon pays the author who has put hours of hard work to create the book. So, you are not actually cheating the author by reading it for free which is the case when you download and read a pirated copy of the book.

Some of my writer friends who have put their books on Kindle Unlimited considers it as the wisest thing they have done in a while. Not only do they get new readers because of the ease of the scheme, but they also get paid handsomely to keep them going. For some, the actual money through sales is often only a fraction of what they earn through Kindle Unlimited.

Have to say, we Indians heart free stuff.

The reason why many best sellers are not available on KU is that these books are available on multiple portals like KOBO, iBooks, Smashwords etc. Amazon KDP Select scheme requires the authors to remain exclusive to their platform, which many authors don’t want.

If you are an Indian reader who likes to experiment with various genres and loves eBooks, Kindle Unlimited is the best choice for you. There are many books which cater to the Indian audience, not to mention access to best sellers from world literature.

Subscribe for a month at Rs 199 and experiment like I did.

If it seems a good option, go for it.

You can subscribe for 6 months for Rs. 999 (at Rs 150/month)

Or for a year. (1785)

I have extended my subscription for another six months as I am nowhere done with my TBR pile on the Kindle Unlimited books list.

If you are an Indian writer, consider putting your book on Kindle Unlimited. It will bring you more readers, ratings, and reviews.

6 comments:

I am a KU user too. I actually joined six months back and after perusing the catalog I ended up taking a year subscription. The reason is that there are so many good books on KU and I am a voracious reader. In my view, the cost is nothing compared to the sheer number and content. For a reader, this is the best investment!

Yes! I agree with you. If I had bought all those 24 titles that I read, I would have exhausted all my money allotted to books for the next few months. And I need to read something new everyday! I found a gold mine on KU. :)